Source: Microsoft Support
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You develop a Direct3D 9 application and attempt to execute the application within the context of a Windows Service.
Action
The application fails to render anything to the screen.
Result
Direct3D 9 is not supported in the context of a Windows service. Direct3D 9 is only supported when executed on an interactive desktop.
Cause
One option is to use the Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd285359.aspx
WARP10 is a high speed, fully conformant software rasterizer.
WARP allows fast rendering in a variety of situations where hardware implementations are unavailable, including:
When running as a service or in a server environment
When the user does not have any Direct3D capable hardware
When no video card installed
When a video driver is not available, or is not working correctly
When a video card is out of memory, hangs or would take too many system resources to initialize.
Starting with Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2, Direct3D 11 supports use from a Windows service. See DirectX 11.1 Features.
Resolution
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